Difficulties arising from the realization of the right to access to education outside a territory with a disputed regime by individuals who obtained previous qualifications in such territory have existed for a long time. The issue was exacerbated after the Ukrainian political crisis of 2014 that led to the emergence of two self-proclaimed entities — the Donetsk People’s Republic and the Luhansk People’s Republic — and posed the question on the further destiny of young people who finished secondary schools in these territories. Although eventually many of them were admitted to Russian universities, it did not resolve the issue fundamentally. Therefore, the authors have set themselves a goal to answer the following question: is it in compliance with international law if a state body, a state agency, or a state educational institution refuses to recognize the qualification on the sole ground that it was obtained in a territory with a disputed regime? While the answer should be negative, it seems that most states do not share this opinion. The possible solution to this and other issues concerning the implementation of the rights of people living in such territories is to conclude the treaty that will guarantee the implementation of all basic human rights that people have under international law including the right to access to education. However, before its conclusion, it is expedient to set a Martens clauselike norm in an international instrument that may contribute to full and consistent implementation of their rights since they do require such protection today.

Due to the technological development the scope of State aircraft application has significantly expanded. As a result there is a need to study the current international legal approach to the definition of “State aircraft” with respect to its applicability to existing relations. Furthermore, the distinction between state and civil aviation is a critical issue in determining the scope of international air law instruments. The authors analyze different approaches to the definition of “State aircraft” at the universal, regional and bilateral level. The study has revealed that there is no holistic understanding of the concept of “state aircraft” in current international law, which has a negative impact on the international legal regulation. The authors conclude that it is advisable to revise the definition of “state aircraft” at the universal level, which should serve as an impetus for further unification of the legal regulation. The authors propose to expand t his legal category beyond the provisions of the 1944 Chicago Convention. This paper argues that it would be in the interests of modern aviation and would address existing and potential legal problems.

The institution of diplomatic asylum occupies a special place in the system of international law due to the ambiguity of its legal regulation. As it is known, this institution was not recognized by the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations of 1961 and subsequent universal legal documents. However, most Latin American countries widely apply the right to grant asylum in the premises of diplomatic missions and not only on the basis of the provisions of numerous regional agreements, which directly provide rules of granting diplomatic asylum. The dual approach to the issue of diplomatic asylum that has developed in international practice creates a lot of disputes between states, due to the divergence of their positions on this issue. The article examines the history of the formation and development of the institution of diplomatic asylum, its legal regulation in Latin America and briefly reveals the contribution of judicial practice to the development of the institution. The main purpose of this study is to identify existing contradictions in the international legal regulation of the institution of diplomatic asylum and to analyze acceptable ways to eliminate such discrepancies.

Today one of the most useful and significant means in supporting and maintaining the foreign investment process is Bilateral Investment Treaties (BIT). The Russian Federation (Russia) and Qatar have actively concluded 84 and 63 BITs, respectively. Unfortunately, the existing BITs do not provide a comprehensive legal framework making it possible to deal with the maritime investments. Hence, the basic question raised in the article is whether the current BITs are a suitable legal framework to protect maritime investments? Having conducted a qualitative and quantitative analysis of all the BITs that Russia and Qatar are parties to, the authors come to the conclusion that the existing BITs are not suitable due to the lack of attention to the necessary issues related to maritime investment. These issues include: (1) the exact scope of maritime areas, (2) definition and types of maritime investment, (3) definition of maritime investor.

This is a research study of available options of Intellectual Property (IP) protections for software in the present IP systems, in most of the countries including copyright and patent protection. Each type of IP protection has its own advantages and limitations like enablement of subject matter for registration requirements, scope of rights conferred and period of protection etc. The trends and demands of software industry for the grant of patents protection for Computer Implemented Inventions (CIIs) were also discussed. The present research paper discusses a best mode of technical disclosure, more than an algorithm, of software patents and additional recommendations are also given as a solution to the technical problem of a suitable IP protection for software. A sui generis IP protection was suggested as a best option for a composite IP protection covering all aspects of advanced software inventions.

Modern law is closely interrelated with the active development of high technologies. Judges, prosecutors, lawyers, as well as other participants of court proceedings are gradually introducing elements of digitalization into their activities. In some countries, neural networks are already being used to help the judge in making a decision in the case under consideration, and also consider court cases in the metaverse. However, any high-tech tools that are easy enough to integrate, for example, into the business sphere, are introduced into law with certain restrictions. They include normative and legal regulation, technological solutions, and digital literacy of the population. However, even all these conditions being provided, the consideration of civil and criminal cases in virtual reality is quite a difficult task. Jurisprudence traditionally remains one of the most conservative institutions, extremely reluctant to introduce high technologies. This paper, taking into account the experience of the courts of Colombia in the consideration of cases in the metaverse, elucidates technical and legal aspects of the introduction of virtual reality technologies in the consideration of civil and criminal cases by Russian courts. The authors analyze the implementation of the principles of legal proceedings, the rights of participants, identity verification and the flow of information.

The paper deals with the results of the study aimed to countermeasure violent extremism in Web 2.0. The paper focuses on the results of the research entitled “Russian Legal Concept of Media Security” and implemented within the framework of the “Priority-2030” Academic Strategic Leadership Program. The increased number of public crimes committed in the new media using telecommunications technologies makes the study relevant. The study is aimed to improve the understanding of current and future global media security challenges and to explain how to resist them based on legal expertise. Legal expertise is characterized as a tool that can contribute to raising the general level of legal culture and, in this regard, the authors highlight that availability of law and language knowledge is relevant in solving criminal law issues regarding implementation of basic rights and freedoms in the digital environment. The authors examine public relations in the field of education, family relations and youth policy related to those who share traditional morality and focus on countering a destructive ideological impact on children, adolescents, and the youth, carried out in order to neutralize inimical inculcation of spiritual values alien to Russian society. The authors scrutinized social networking, a combination of mini web pages, blogs and searchable communities, to detect signs of extremist propaganda shared via internet communication as a key challenge Russian society is facing nowadays. They elucidate the importance of undertaking effective measures to protect the population from harmful effect of destructive extremist ideology and its negative psychological impact. An interdisciplinary study of media security in the paradigm of criminal law sciences was conducted on the basis of legal expertise — a comprehensive criminalistic, criminology, forensic, psychological and linguistic approach to counteracting a destructive ideological impact on adolescents and neutralizing the mechanisms of implanting alien moral values. The authors have systematized threats to traditional Russian spiritual values and proposed to amend legislation and law enforcement practice to improve media security. Deep efforts should be made to encourage zero tolerance for extremist actions in the information sphere among people, to form their competence to ensure media security, including effective recourse to legal (or forensic) experts and authorized entities in case of violations of the law.

The paper deals with the overview, prioritization and analysis of the elements that are inalienable in legal negotiations and teaching modules of the course on negotiations. An experienced legal negotiating coach keeps in mind a number of vital elements of the course, such as personal ch aracteristics of learners, stylistic patterns and cultural features. The data collected in the research supports the fact that cultural shifts reflected in the statements of negotiators have a direct impact on the negotiation result and often lead to misunderstandings and inability to reach an agreement. For instance, Russian businessmen often unconsciously apply inflexible aggressive integrated strategy of negotiations. Thus, the negotiation course module devoted to cultural awareness and appropriate negotiating strategies development should contain, inter alia, information connected with authentic reactions of negotiators belonging to a particular ethnic group, and this information should be scrutinized and deeply considered. Consequently, it will be useful to apply the priming teaching technique through the comparison and analysis of students’ responsive statements with native speakers’ responsive statements in one and the same simulation which will facilitate mastering successful negotiation skills leading to a package deal beneficial for all parties.